AN OFF-ISLAND CHAMORU LISTENS TO “BENTE UNO YU’ GI PRESU” BY MARIANAS HOMEGROWN AND WRITES ABOUT GUILT
By Sydney Blas
“Our bodies were latte stones, pillaring and holding their weight against what felt like a push towards home.”
Sydney Blas is an indigenous creative writing graduate of University California, Riverside and is based in Torrance, California. As an off-island CHamoru who relocated to the mainland U.S. at the age of 10, she spends her writing career enveloped in the historical trauma, colonization, and militarization of Guåhan. She actively uses poetry to reinvigorate CHamoru language outside of her home island, and as a way to yell at the world for being forgetful. You can find her work at Rejected Lit and on Instagram @thesyddster.
By Sydney Blas
“Our bodies were latte stones, pillaring and holding their weight against what felt like a push towards home.”